Gerrard Backs Capello Ahead Of Euro 2012 Qualifiers English captain Steven Gerrard has defended Fabio Capello ahead of England’s first Euro qualifiers versus Bulgaria and Switzerland, calling the cries for his ousting “crazy.” “It’s important Fabio is still given a chance. Who out there, that’s an English manager, has the CV Fabio Capello has got?” said Gerrard, referring to the popular opinion in the British media that the Three Lions’ next manager should be English. “It would be a knee-jerk reaction to sack a manager after one bad tournament then think everything will be rosy when you start with a new guy and we’ll go on and win the Euros. That’s crazy.” Gerrard also hinted that Capello would not change his traditional 4-4-2 formation. “Criticism doesn’t...

Women's fifth seed Samantha Stosur is in action early on day five at Flushing Meadows, while Andy Murray takes on Dustin Brown at about 2000...

Scientists say they've finally discovered science behind why men are able to kick a football harder than women.Using 10 video cameras, 21 retroreflective markers and 16 electrodes researchers monitored what happens when men and women kick a ball.They discovered significant differences in knee alignment and muscle activation between men and women, giving men more power.Male players apparently activate the hip flexors in their kicking leg and the hip abductors in their supporting leg more than females.Next up the researchers will study throwing like a girl and investigate whether their dad can indeed beat up your dad. It's said the bone and muscle differences also mean female footballers are more likely to suffer injury."Activation of the hip abductors may help protect players...

Video by World Cup group Freshlyground challenges Zimbabwe dictator to 'become the hero he used to be' – and step downRobert Mugabe has never been known for his sense of humour. So you wouldn't want to be the apparatchik at Zimbabwe's State House explaining to the president how a music video that lampoons him as a chicken is threatening to go viral.A latex puppet of Mugabe, redolent of 80s TV satire Spitting Image, is the star of a slick video by multinational African group Freshlyground, best known for their collaboration with Shakira on the official World Cup song Waka Waka (This Time for Africa).The song, Chicken for Change, has a bouncy and upbeat feel that belies its serious political message. The video depicts an aloof Mugabe riding in the back of a chauffeur-driven presidential...

Money-laundering and fraud hits the Ryman Premier League Peter Risdale, Eggert Magnusson, Malcolm Glazer, you are old news. We have a new most-hated club owner. On Sunday the News of the World newspaper revealed that it had unearthed a betting scandal that may shake the very foundations of cricket. The ripples may be felt within non-league football [...]...

…Fabio. I haven’t said you were a “monster” either, just that you aren’t as good at the job as you and those that were sucked in by qualifying through a piss easy group – with some less than convincing displays against mediocre opponents that were glosses over by the scoreline – think you were and that when you faced a real side you’d be found out. Basically you’re just another Sven Goran-Eriksson. Something that’s made ever more evident by the team that’ll probably be picked to play Bulgaria tonight. Look at the side, think about the fact that if Lampard and Terry were available then they would be straight in the starting XI and therefore it would be exactly the same outfield ten who were thumped by German. Yes thumped...

Britain's Andy Murray takes on Dustin Brown of Jamaica in the second round of the US Open, with the threat of Hurricane Earl hanging over New...

Butt, Asif and Amir interviewed by Metropolitan police for second time over allegations of bowling no-balls at Lord'sThe three Pakistan cricketers at the centre of an alleged betting scam were today being questioned by police.It is the second time Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have been interviewed by the Metropolitan police since the allegations surfaced that the three had agreed to bowl no-balls in specific overs of last week's fourth Test at Lord's in return for money.They were initially questioned last weekend when the News of the World broke the story and had their mobile phones seized by the police.The trio were yesterday suspended by the International Cricket Council, pending a tribunal, despite the ICC having indicated that they would not take any action before the...

“I’ve done a lot of training for this cycle sportive, it only took me ten and half hours because I  don’t have that much natural talent.” I’ve spent £2000 on this new Carbon Record groupset, but, to be honest, the bike feels just about the same as before. The female cyclist overtook me up the hill because she is obviously in better physical condition, whereas I’m overweight and lacking in fitness. Whenever it clouds over and threatens rain, I ditch the bike and take my Land Rover. So there I was waiting at the red light, when… I had my legs waxed because I’m vain and like the look of my sleek muscle toned legs. So who was Lance Armstrong anyway? I think motorists should always have right of way on the roads because cars...

If you follow EPL Talk on Twitter, you’ll know that I send out a ton of links each day featuring breaking news, fascinating articles, updates on availability of soccer on your local TV provider, and much more including my ramblings. But here are a few stories that I wanted to share with you here on EPL Talk that I thought you’d find interesting: Fulham supporters, put yourself on the map. A few weeks ago, I wrote about Manchester City’s social media site that encouraged City supporters from around the world to show they’re a true blue by adding their name and location to an interactive map. Now Fulham has got in on the act by creating a similar map for fans of the Whites to show their support. Check it out. The return of The Two Escobars. ESPN’s critically acclaimed film, The...

• Three Pakistan players suspended by ICC• Leading Pakistani diplomat says ICC action is 'wrong'• Rob Bagchi on the legacy of entrapment• The latest from Durham v Notts at Chester-le-Street• Watch county cricket video highlights12.19pm: Flanagan says the cloud of this potential match-fixing case has a "silver lining" as it has made people more vigilent in regards to corruption within the sport. 12.17pm: Lorgat refutes claim from Michael Atherton that the ICC has "buried evidence" in regards to match-fixing. Flanagan says ICC's anti-corruption unit can only interview players once those involved in the criminal investigation are happy for them to do so.12.12pm: Flanagan says that if the three Pakistan players are found guilty they could well be banned for life. He declines,...

The politics of football Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has revealed in his memoirs that he sought the advice of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson on getting rid of Gordon Brown. Blair was eager to ditch his Chancellor, but was concerned about destablising his government. So he consulted Labour supporter Fergie, who he knew was no [...]...

Great work from the talkSPORT gang In this fun-filled subtitle extravaganza, Rafa Benitez attempts to avoid getting into mind games with Jose Mourinho. But it turns out the Italian media have ways of making him talk. And it is not long before that talk becomes Mourinho trash talk. Spotted on 101GG...

Got a few minutes? Take a pen (well actually I used Excel, but never mind). Now pick your Best XV of the tournament - the IRB's website (http://www.rwcwomens.com/) will be a big help as it has all the teams, scorers, etc. etc.Done that?Okay - how many players in your team are NOT from England or New Zealand. Apart from Nicole Beck? And maybe Lucy Millard might just have squeezed in. Even if you have a full 22 chances are that the bench will be pretty much filled with England or New Zealand players. Astonishing isn't it - at pretty much every position the best player in the world will be on display in the final on Sunday.The gulf between the top two and the rest is an ocean. Look at what the Black Ferns did to France - probably the third best team in the world (they beat Canada, after...

Don't get your hopes up - captain for the night Stephen Craigan look forward to his fiftieth cap.Will it be déja vu all over again for Northern Ireland in Maribor?  Two years ago, in an Autumn World Cup game, Slovenia won 2-0 in the fortress city, condemning Nigel Worthington’s men to an uphill battle for qualification. Back then, in a gloomy, angry post I condemned the manager for allowing his team to ’regress to the mean’.  It’s a process which I contend is still ongoing. The belief which Lawrie Sanchez instilled in his group of players, the discipline and the professionalism he inculcated, did not disappear immediately after Worthington took over.  Instead it dissipated gradually, like sand running through the Ballymena man’s fingers. Now, following seven...

After three matches, jumping to conclusions about how the season will play out seems a bit hasty. We can’t possibly know after three short weeks what’s going to happen in the next eight months, right? Wrong. Here are five conclusions I’m ready to jump to: This is the last season you’ll see Fernando Torres in a Liverpool shirt The season surely hasn’t been the start Roy Hodgson dreamt of. It’s tough to say what has been the most excruciating part of Hodgson’s first three weeks in charge. It could be Joe Cole’s less than stellar red-card and botched penalty debut week. Or perhaps it was the way Pepe Reina let those two points bang off his hands and into the Reds goal at Anfield? The 3-0 pounding at Eastlands? No, it surely has to be Javier Mascherano’s...

It’s Friday, so it’s time for another coup. Here’s Darius… International breaks are a permanent fixture in the footballing calendar. For Arsenal players such breaks are Russian roulette, a dangerous game which may see their season wrecked through injuries suffered on foreign fields. As sure as taxation and death, we might as well get used to such breaks so I thought I’d touch on an issue affecting the future of the game; the evolution and changing culture of football, fields where Arsenal is ahead of its rivals. England’s capitulation in the 2010 World cup illustrates what can happen when vanity, ignorance, intransigence and lack of vision impede a footballing establishment from moving into the 21st century. There is always a clamour for drastic action...

ToryDiary: How blue is the Coalition? Part Four - Foreign Affairs Mark Pritchard MP on Platform: Right-wingers have plenty to cheer in the Coalition programme - so they should not scupper next week's Referendum BillLocal Government: Chance for a Conservative county councillor for Cambridge Manchester Lib Dem councillor quits to become Independent Melanchthon on CentreRight: Britain's withdrawal form the world stage is not inevitable - and would in any case be a renunciation of our duty to mankind and to historyInternational: November's midterms look increasingly bleak for the US Democrats Zac Goldsmith MP shares his favourite anecdote from the campaign trail as he answers ConHome's Twenty Questions for the Class of 2010: A policeman removed a roll-up cigarette directly from my mouth,...

Roger Federer overcomes windy conditions to beat Andreas Beck and reach the US Open third round, but seeds Nikolay Davydenko and Maran Cilic crash...

It’s almost two years since Theo Walcott’s finest hour in an England shirt. The Arsenal’s man smashed his way in to Fabio Capello’s thoughts with a sublime hat-trick in England’s 4-1 demolition of Croatia. After slowly falling from grace since that day, the former Southampton man has started this season with a bang, scoring four times in his last two games. Now we will finally see Walcott reach the level he did back in Zagreb? Walcott’s performance that night showed the World just what he could do. But unfortunately he was never able to build on his display that night and stuttered over the following months and ultimately seasons. He came under lots of criticism with people saying he lacked any end product and didn’t have a footballing brain. Walcott found himself...

Captain and two bowlers protest their innocence as players are to be interviewed by police under cautionThe three Pakistan cricketers at the centre of an alleged betting scam that has thrown world cricket into crisis were tonight charged under the anti-corruption code of the game's governing body and provisionally suspended.After a day that began with the Pakistan Cricket Board agreeing to omit the players from the team for the rest of the tour, and the Pakistan high commissioner claiming the newspaper claims were a "set-up", the ICC suspended the three pending a tribunal.Outside the west London hotel in which Test captain Salman Butt, fast bowler Mohammad Asif and brilliant teenage prospect Mohammad Amir are also staying, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat provided the swift action many...

I have contributed a little bit of interesting trivia about the Pakistan manager to The...

I think we all know that Back to the Future II has inspired much technology that is yet to become real by the year 2015. That was the year that Marty and Doc traveled to at the beginning of the film, for those that don’t remember it. Granted, we are closer to a hoverboard than we were before, and someone is working on “Power Laces”. Hopefully, you remember the scene in the movie when Michael J. Fox is dressing in future attire and puts his feet into some Nikes. The shoes tied themselves, by tightening the laces automatically, and the Nike logo glowed. (Clearly some obvious product placement by Nike.) The Power Laces trick was actually done with a motor that was behind the shoe itself. However, Blake Bevin is working on a way to make Power Laces a reality. Her...

• Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif charged• Pakistan players had withdrawn from one-day series against EnglandSalman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have been provisionally suspended by the International Cricket Council.The game's governing body has charged the Pakistan trio with "various offences under Article 2 of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code for Players and Player Support Personnel relating to irregular behaviour during, and in relation to, the fourth Test between England and Pakistan at Lord's last month".The three players have been at the eye of a spot-fixing storm since claims in the News of The World last Sunday, and today they withdrew from the Twenty20 and one-day series against England which is due to begin on Sunday.But they would not now be eligible for...

• Calls for judicial inquiry after reporter is suspended• Latest phone hacking allegation dates from earlier this year• Four targets poised to sue police over failure to warn themThe government tonight came under pressure to set up a judicial inquiry into the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World after the paper confirmed that it has suspended a journalist while it investigates new allegations of the unlawful interception of voicemail.The prime minister's media adviser, Andy Coulson, has denied a report in the New York Times which claimed he freely discussed the use of unlawful news-gathering techniques when he was editing the paper and "actively encouraged" a named reporter to engage in illegal interception of voicemail messages. Coulson has always denied knowing of any...

It hasn’t even been two months since Andres Iniesta’s golaso in Johannesburg yet meaningful international football returns with Friday’s slate of Euro 2012 qualifiers. No doubt Spanish supporters are looking forward to the defence of their 2008 title but can English fans summon the passion after their bummer summer? The four home nations plus Ireland begin European qualification against a mix of minnows and middle-of-the-pack squads. Wouldn’t anchovy be a more apt term than minnow? Often times we don’t want to eat anchovies, just as we often don’t care to watch our boys go out for a jog against an also-ran, but we know deep down that eating anchovies is good for us, just as doing well against the smaller nations builds confidence and form for more important matches. Five...

As September begins and university students make their way back to campus for the start of the semester, I’m reminded that we’re gearing up for this year’s Marshall Scholarship candidates. The Marshall Scholarship, named in honour of US Secretary of State George C Marshall, was established in 1953 to strengthen and reflect the enduring relationship between British and American people and institutions. The scholarship finances exceptional young American graduates to study in the United Kingdom.   I help to facilitate the application process for the New York region by liaising between the Regional Selection Committee, university advisers and the Marshall candidates. One of my favourite parts of being involved with the scholarship programme is interacting...

8,000 spectators over three days for the pool games (plus a likely couple of thousand who would have gone if tickets had not sold out on all three days)Up to 1,000 more for the 5th/12th play-off semi-finals at Surrey Sports ParkAround 4,000 - 5,000 for the semi-finals at The Stoop12,000 - 15,000 expected for the final Live matches on TV in the UK, and around the world.However else you look at these numbers its a significant step forward from the first World Cup in 1991, when England's opening game attracted a "crowd" of 47! More significantly this points to a turnover of around £200,000 or more in ticket sales alone. Is this the tipping point for women's rugby?From a purist point of view this should not matter. As a amateur sport the people that matter are the players -...

Boffins say they have finally explained the science behind Roberto Carlos' amazing free kick goal against France in 1997.The goal scored by the Brazilian in the Tournoi de France is widely regarded as one of football's best ever free-kicks.Some commentators joked it "defied physics" and keeper Fabian Barthez was embarrassingly left standing still and red-faced by the strike.But while some thought it was a fluke, physicists have now computed the trajectory equation and shown that Carlos' goal was all skill… and science, obviously.They claim any ball kicked hard enough, with the right spin and from far enough away will follow the 'spinning ball spiral' -- so prepare to see lots of long range attempts this weekened. As Christophe Clanet and David Quéré, researchers from École...

Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, who have been dropped from tour, face top officials over betting allegationsThe Pakistani high commissioner said today he believed the three players under investigation for spot-fixing were innocent, after talking to them in London about the allegations.Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, who will take no further part in the tour of England, had been summoned to explain themselves to commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan, and the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Ijaz Butt.After the meeting, Hasan read out a statement saying the men maintained their innocence but had requested their own removal from the remaining matches because of the "mental torture" they had faced.In response to a question, he said: "I believe in their...